Don't buy Manker -- they don't support their products

I bought a Manker E11 in September 2018. It was a nice flashlight while it lasted. After 9 months, it started going flakey. It would not turn on all the time. Seemed to be an intermittent problem. I tried different batteries, different temperatures, etc. Could not find any pattern to the failures. Eventually I gave up and contacted the manufacturer (Manker) who said I would need to mail it back to China. OK, I did, and that cost me $15 for postage. Four weeks later, I got my flashlight back — and it still didn’t work. It was worse than ever, it didn’t turn on at all. I tried various troubleshooting steps that they requested via email, nothing worked. They said that I would have to mail it back to them AGAIN. I told them no, I already spent $15 on postage, you already had a chance to fix it, please send me a new flashlight. Then they went silent on me. I sent them three more emails, no response. My recommendation: DON’T BUY A MANKER FLASHLIGHT.

I had similar issue with Manker U11 which was bought on Gearbest in 2016.
It was used several times and put back in the box waiting for occasion to be given as a gift. It never happened as I gave something else and “forgot” about U11 for 2 years.
I checked it in 2018 as I was showing it to my friend, but it did not work as it should. Some blinks and flashlight went “dead”. I never dropped it.

I contacted Gearbest, but they said it’s more then a year from purchase date so I better contact manufacturer directly.
I did but I was ignored. :frowning:
I sent Manker two more emails with same effect. :weary:
I’ve learned one thing for sure: to avoid Manker flashlights as they are not supporting their products :person_facepalming:

Interesting. I’ve dealt with Sunwayman several times and found them very good. Once I asked for switch covers for a light, they asked for a small sum to cover postage and sent me 3 or 4, very good. Once I had a failed light, fixed for free, although I had to pay to send it to them, but worth it. The UK dealer ignored my emails even though it was only six months old, shameful. Clearly some Chinese brands are more customer friendly than others.

Sounds like typical Chinese aftersales support. It’s not exclusive to Manker unfortunately. Buy from a local store if you want a legit warranty.

yeah they suck
U11 switch is a very poor design
i see they are still using it for new designs
they would not do anything but ignore me, either

wle

My Manker U11 USB port went dead after less than 1hr usage. I stopped recommending buyers getting their products for quite a number of years number.

Good to hear that.

Neither does Acebeam or Nitecore if you buy them directly from China.

Actually I was very impressed by Acebeam’s customer service when the UV LED of my X80 lost its coating and needed replacing, and I asked them if I could send the head directly to them rather than to Banggood.

But from what I’ve read on this forum, Manker are best avoided.

Exactly. You bought it from China, so you had to go through the shipping expense (just like the OP) to send it to China for service. The OP is lucky his package made it without a tracking number. Big risk difference between shipping the OP’s $30 light, and shipping your $300 light without a tracking number. The light ended up costing the OP 45 dollars instead of 30.

I bought a Nitecore from Banggood with a group buy. It lasted all of 3 months before it completely quit working. Banggood would do nothing, and Nitecore wouldn’t either unless I shipped it to them. I wasn’t about to spend $60 on shipping with a tracking number when the light cost $47. So, no warranty service in the US unless you pay full blown retail, and purchase it from a US reseller. Same goes for Europe.

Nor does Eagletac, in my experience.

So we can expect NO service from any manufacturer on anything bought from a Chinese dealer??
Seems severe!

I was told that I would receive a E01 replacement from them (Manker) and then I never had contact with them ever again. After a few months of no responses to my emails I assumed that they went out of business or something.

as well as Imalent and several others! The list goes on and on. I've come to the point to just enjoy my lights and hope I don't get any duds.

Manker is already on my crappy-manufacturer list.
I purchased a Manker U23 from HKEquipment. It didn’t work out of the box. It just kind of flickers dimly, unless I use a battery that is below about 3.8V, then it works normally. Pretty sure it was used because the inside of the battery tube was dirty and the sticker showing the battery direction was missing, but I could see the outline inside the tube where the sticker used to be. Both HKEquipment and Manker were useless. Manker said it was HKEquipment’s problem and HKEquipment wanted me to pay shipping all the way to China, even though the light supposedly shipped form their US warehouse (which took over 3 weeks).

You were lucky, I had a Nitecore that failed after about 5 months and couldn’t even get a reply from Nitecore.

This kind of situation strikes me as one where it is probably worth disputing the charges if this was bought with a credit card.

I get that buying low cost brands direct from China means normal levels of customer support aren’t there, so paying for international return shipping is common, but them sending back a defective flashlight and then trying to get the customer to pay for shipping again is going too far in my book.

I hope they sharpen up. Manker produces some interesting designs from time to time.

Bought an MK34 from Goinggear . Had one led out . They sent me shipping label to return to them and sent me a new one within a week . US supplier is usually much better .

I probably shouldn’t mention this, but last year or so, someone I work with had an issue with item X that he bought from a 3rd-party vendor. It went teats-up after a few months of light use. No reply or anything from the manufacturer nor vendor. He sees the same item advertised on Amazon. Orders it, gets it, claims it’s DOA, returns the TU one and keeps the good one.

Even if the price is twice what you paid for it, you’d be getting it back anyway, so…

I have no idea if they were both the same version or different. Amazon probably doesn’t even look too closely anyway, though. Flashlights, I don’t think anyone would check if it’s NW vs CW, etc., but something like a leafblower, yeah, model 609 vs model 710 would kinda stand out.

I’ve had to do that before, but made sure it was sold by the manufacturer (Razor scooters in my case), and not an innocent re-seller to get stuck with a dud.

Ethical questions aside, Amazon is not afraid to ban accounts for having too many returns. Other retailers have taken up similar policies as well to curb abuse. Best Buy gained some notoriety from it.

The standards used to determine what constitutes abuse are state secrets, but seemingly reasonable consumers with justifiable cases have been caught in the net.

It’s important to remember that return privileges are generally just that, and not compulsory. Store A takes returns because Store B does, and they are in competition.